New York, NY (WFAN)  -- They are not the Broad Street Bullies anymore but with the way the Flyers play on the edge, those who still remember when the NHL playoffs had a fight or two or 20 will love this series.

This series won't remind you of that Quebec-Hartford street fight in the opening round of the 1987 Adams Division Playoffs when the teams combined to shatter penalty minute records, but there is a very healthy dislike between these teams and that should help sell this series as somewhat of a throwback series. Each team has skill and the Penguins have a modern day Gretzky-Kurri situation developing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin (or a Lemieux-Jagr scenario) but don't think for one second that the Penguins can't hit. Both teams can, and that's why this series is a must watch.

Philadelphia Inquirer hockey scribe Ray Parrillo wrote, "Judging by the contentious nature that characterized the eight games the teams played during the regular season - when they combined for 431 penalty minutes - there seems to be a good chance those handshakes will take place with swollen knuckles. And there's a good chance they'll be exchanging smiles with rearranged dental work. The Flyers and Penguins got caught up in several moments this season. Some bad conduct led to misconduct penalties. Cote was brazen enough to twice take on Georges Laraque, the menacing 245-pound winger widely recognized as the NHL's heavyweight champion. Danny Briere ended up wearing a knee brace after a knee-on-knee collision with Jarkko Ruutu that the Flyers suspected was a cheap shot."

"They've got some skilled players, but they also play with an edge," Flyers enforcer Riley Cote said yesterday to Parrillo. "They have some guys who irritate you and get under your skin, and guys you'd like to rub their face in the ice sometimes. But that's just hockey. Emotions rise. You get caught up in the moment."

An interesting occurance that made news in December was an 8-2 rout by Philly, a game that saw the Flyers use the high scoring Briere on the power play late in the game to run up the score. Stevens didn't deny the charge, saying he felt it was the way to get back at the Pens who seemed more interested in taking out knees than scoring goals. Just adds fire to what already is going to be a hot series.

The Flyers are led by Pittsburgh native R.J. Umberger.who has nine goals and 11 points in 12 games. Atop the scoring ledger are free agent acquisition Briere (picked up from Buffalo in the off season) with 8-6=14 and Vaclav Prospal with 3-9=12. The loss of Kimo Timonen makes Braydon Coburn much more vital to the Flyers. Goalie Martin Biron has been lights out, with a 2.72 goals against and a .914 save percentage.

On the Penguins side, their dismantling of the Rangers was systematic and efficient and the bottom line is that the Rangers never had an answer to the Penguins sticktoitiveness. The Penguins are four deep and have a solid six on defense. The old adage in the NHL was that if you have six D who all play about the same amount you don't have a very good defense. The Penguins don't split ice time evenly but Hal Gill and Long Island (and Apple Core alumni) Rob Scuderi can log important minutes.

Ryan Whitney gives the Pens a good offensive defenseman who has great size and handles the slot well. Jarkko Rutuu, Gary Roberts and Georges Laraque give the Pens that menacing presence that should have a ball with the Flyers group of Riley Cote, Steve Downie and Darien Hatcher. The Penguins have an edge up front with Crosby, Malkin, Marian Hossa, Petr Sykora, Ryan Malone and Pascal Dupuis, and Sergei Gonchar is still someone you have to know is on the ice. The goaltending has been great on both sides.

The Flyers enter the series 12-50 on the man advantage for a 24% success ratio and that's great for post season play but the Penguins showed in the Rangers series that they can score momentum changing goals late in periods on the power play. They are a shade behind in percentage with a 11-47 line, good for 23.4%. Skating shorthanded they eliminated the Rangers power play pretty well and are at 89.5%, allowing four goals on 38 opportunities. The Flyers were great against Montreal late in that series on the pk, but come in at 77.2% having allowed 13 goals on 57 chances.

Prediction: The Penguins have had a "relatively easy" time so far with a sweep over disinterested Ottawa and a five gamer over the overmatched Rangers. The Flyers had a one goal lead against Montreal in game one of their last series and saw the Canadiens tie it in the final minute. The the Habs won in OT and became only the fourth team in NHL history to tie a playoff game in the last minute and win in in the first minute of OT. The Flyers rallied to win the next three. That's moxie!

Pittsburgh survives a war of attrition but barely. Penguins arrive in Detroit battered but battle tested for the Finals in a seven game series.

NOTES: It was two seasons ago that the Penguins swept the Flyers in the season series, 8-0.

The Flyers' John Stevens and Pittsburgh's Michel Therrien have coached against each other in the postseason twice before, just not in the NHL.

Stevens was the coach of the Philadelphia Phantoms and Therrien was behind the bench for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins during series in 2004 and '05.

In 2004, the Phantoms lost in six games in the East Division finals.

The Phantoms had won the division title that year with 101 points, 15 better than the Penguins, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got on a roll in the postseason. After beating the Phantoms, the Penguins beat regular-season Eastern Conference champion Hartford in seven games to get to the Calder Cup finals, but were swept by Milwaukee, which had the most points in the league.

The current Flyers in that series were Jeff Carter, Antero Niittymaki and Randy Jones; current Penguins in that series were Kris Beech, Ryan Whitney, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Marc-Andre Fleury.

In 2005, the Phantoms eliminated the Penguins in five games in the East Division finals on their way to the Calder Cup championship.

The Phantoms were trailing in Game 5 by 4-1 with a little more than 11 minutes to play, but roared back with six goals to win, 7-4. Carter and Whitney each scored twice in that game.

Phantoms alumni from that series now with the Flyers are Carter, Niittymaki, Jones, Mike Richards, Riley Cote and R.J. Umberger. Pittsburgh has Beech, Whitney, Fleury, Maxime Talbot and Scuderi.

Flyers lose a defenseman: The Flyers lost a key defenseman on the eve of the series. Defenseman Kimo Timonen is expected to be out for the rest of the season with a blood clot in his left ankle. Timonen has been the Flyers' top defenseman, and generally was credited for how the team held Washington's Alexander Ovechkin in check in their opening-round, seven-game playoff series.

"There is a blood clot right in the front of his left foot, right about where he ties his skate," general manager Paul Holmgren said told the Philadelphia Daily News Ed Moran.

Various news sources were used in the compilation of this article.